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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

About a week after Kye's last doctors appointment Zach and I noticed a red spot on Kye's testicles...it made me a little nervous, since that's obviously an area I'm not too familiar with, but we figured it'd go away like the other little skin marks he gets sometimes. No big deal!

Well it's been a month and the spot is still there. It's a little bigger than the size of a dime and it's not raised or anything, his skin is just red. I called the dr. last week to cancel his flu shot appointment (I decided WHY give him more shots than he needs? We're very low risk since I stay home with him and I breastfeed still) and I just mentioned it to them to make sure it was okay. Of course the nurse says she needs to ask the dr and then they call me back and said we need to schedule an appointment. Grr. All that did was make me nervous that something was going to be wrong with him!

Today was his appoinment. Thankfully it was at 3:30 which was perfect for his schedule. We got there at 3:15 and the place was packed. I figured it'd be fine since we've never been in there and waited longer than 20 min. Well I was wrong. We waited for his name to be called for an HOUR then waited in some back hallway for an actual room for another 20 min. REDICULOUS!

Thankfully a lot of other nice people were in the waiting room with us. This cute little boy was sitting beside us and Kye just loved him! He was 5 and wanted to teach Kye how to talk. It was adorable. He'd tell Kye to say something and then Kye would actually say something but not the actual thing the kid was wanting obviously! It was a lot for me to keep Kye entertained that whole time, especially since I didn't want him on the floor or playing with any of the other children or toys b/c it was a doctor's office where SICK people are and I don't want him catching something! He really did behave better than I would have expected. He was a little squirmy but you can't blame the kid for that. He also got pretty loud at times but he wasn't crying, just "singing" (when he basically grunts wildly in public I tell people, sarcastically obviously, that he's singing and that he got his beautiful voice from me haha).

They did weigh him while we were there and my child weighs over 20 lb now!!!! 20 lb 5 oz to be exact! Crazy! He was a good boy for the dr. and she said that it looked fine and is probably just a birth mark that may stay with him forever. She said "who cares" Which was kinda funny. I mean that's true, it doesn't matter that he has a red mark on his junk b/c no one will really know that (although it's funny to think about him being married someday and me still knowing that he has a little mark there haha) but still it's odd for a doctor to say "who cares" when they tell you some news on your child!

I was annoyed. I know I should be relieved that he doesn't have something serious, and I am. We've been praying about it a lot this week and I'm so thankful he's fine but after all that hassle you kinda want them to at least say to put some diaper rash cream on it or SOMETHING ya know?

I wasn't going to have the whole thing be a complete waste of my time so I asked her about when to stop breastfeeding and when he can have cows milk and she said at 10 1/2 months old I should start giving him a mix of breastmilk and cows milk then at 11 months I can just give him cows milk. I'm going to add up all the milk I have in the freezer and see when I should start the weening process because I don't want to have gone through ALL the hassle for that milk for me to not even need it!!!!

I'm glad Kye's manhood is okay but I wish the dr wouldn't always say to come in for something so small. And I wish they would stick to their "no waiting longer than 30 min" policy. At least he was good, I'm proud of that. What I'm super nervous for is his 9 month check up that the appointment (only time they could get me in) is smack in the middle of his afternoon (most important) nap. Should be very very interesting!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I've blogged about my issues with the confusion of solid foods before and how I was never going to make my own baby food. Well I'm sort of a hypocrite! While I haven't made actual baby food I have changed my ideas about what I feed Kye.

I recently read an article in Parents magazine (Nov 2009) called Make Your Baby a Veggie Lover. The article really hit home to me. I am a picky eater and I really think a lot of that has to do with not being able to smell. For me, food is more about texture than anything else. Well this article talked about why toddlers are known for being so picky...they aren't used to the textures of food! Think about it. I feed Kye all this jarred baby food and then one day BAM it's gone and I expect him to eat real food and like it. That's confusing. It also said that the jarred stuff doesn't even taste like the real stuff. How's he supposed to like it then?

The article says that if you give a baby a food repeatedly at this age he will acquire a taste for it more easily now than any other time in his life. Right now his taste buds are setting their food preferences and selecting the messages that each flavor will send to his brain. By the time he's a toddler, however, he'll most likely only being willing to eat foods that he's already come to trust. As toddlers we actually develop an intense fear of new fruits, vegetables and meats that is an instinct to not trust new things as they could be poison (makes sense if you think about it!).

The big thing the article says is to not give up. Most people try a new food once or twice then quit offering it but it actually takes around 10 times of eating a food for a baby to like it. This author says that as soon as you start feeding baby food you can start mashing up real food for the baby to eat so he will get used to the flavor and texture of that new food.

Another aspect of this article that really hit me was about color. Babies love bright colors and foods that are good for you are always pretty! As Kye becomes accustomed to eating different colors it'll be easier to get him to eat a balanced diet when he's older and the brown foods (not good for you foods) will look boring. That statement made me think about my own eating habits. Breakfast: cereal or granola bar (both brown) Lunch: peanut butter crackers (both brown) my only real color is at dinner and even then it's usually corn or green beans! Not very good! Something I need to work on too which is also mentioned in the article that kids will like things that we like. Zach and I both want to start eating healthier so our children will make healthy choices!

I decided to follow this articles advice and start to feed Kye real food. Yes, he's still getting his normal baby food but I feed him these foods too. We've really started watching for cues that he's full and we STOP feeding him. We are all born with a natural ability to know when we've had the perfect amount of food but we lose that instinct because we're told to clean our plates and one more bite our whole lives. This leads us to constantly over-eat and have that nasty stuffed feeling which also leads to obesity. I want Kye to keep that instinct as long as he can so I don't want to force feed him (easier said than done though! I know all moms can relate!).

The author recommends having the baby try a variety of foods before the age of one and I haven't wasted any time! He says that a variety is good and not to worry about trying too many new things at once. I give him a couple pieces of stuff after each meal if he's interested and we try to eat as a family at 5 or 5:30 each night and he eats some then as well.

Before giving him ANY of the foods I first check this website: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ It's amazing!!! I got it from the Babywise Blog Lady and I love it! It tells you about each food and when it's okay for them to have it, what benefits the food gives them, and how to cook it! The only thing I've cooked was pumpkin (yes, I cut it from the pumpkins we carved haha! use whatcha got!) but still it's there if you want to know some recipes. The site is a great resource for me as I got some tomatoes from the student center and I was going to let him try them but the site said that the acid can mess up his tummy and to wait until he's a year old so I didn't. It also said that he can have egg yolks but not whites so when we made eggs the other night Zach made ours with just whites (so much better for us!) and scrambled Kye some yolks!

So far it's going AWESOME! I just cut things up pretty small and feed them to him (but I do NOT blend them or make them super smooth) and he's had great reactions to most of it. I still give him Cheerios as finger foods as the texture of the healthy foods makes it hard for him to pick them up. I did notice after reading that article that ALL the finger foods we give him are brown! The Gerber Graduates stuff and Cheerios!

Here are the foods Kye has eaten (I'll be adding to this list until he turns 1 as it's great for me to refer back to to know what I've already given him and to know for baby #2!):

Peaches: not a fan yet

Pears: not a fan yet

Butter Beans: loves them!

Pumpkin (with some cinnamon and nutmeg): not a fan yet

Whole Wheat Bagel: liked it okay

Cheddar Cheese: loves it!

Melon: loves it!

Bananas: took several days but now likes them

Black Eyed Peas: loves them (was my fav as a baby too!)

Cantlope: loves it!

Watermelon: FAVORITE food!

Egg Yolk: still learning to like it

White Potatoes: loves em!

Green Beans: loves them!

Carrots: loves them!

Purple Grapes: loves them!

Blueberries: still adjusting

Pineapple: liked okay, didn't realize I wasn't supposed to feed it to him yet!

So yesterday Kye and I went for a walk and went down to the park to play on the swings. When we walked up I saw two suvs in the park parking lot. As I was walking by them I saw that they were covered in stickers like this one:

I didn't really think anything of it and went to the swings. As I was pushing Kye (he loves it by the way) I saw two girls around my age walking identical dogs. The dogs didn't have leashes on and they stayed pretty close to their owners. You could tell they loved these dogs. Both dogs were perfectly groomed and shiny white. The girls were carrying balls and such with them and the dogs were sporting some nice collars. They stopped because something was wrong with one of the dogs and so they checked her out and the other run didn't even run off. When I went to leave I saw that both of the suvs had front license plates that sported their dogs on them and they both had little dog bowls sitting next to their car filled with water ready when they got done with their walk.

When they would walk by Kye and I they didn't say a thing or stop to comment on the baby like most people do. I started thinking about how funny it is that they are probably my age or maybe even a little older yet we live very different lives! Don't get me wrong, I love my dogs but they are DOGS. It made me kinda laugh inside to see how crazy these chicks were about dogs!!! It made me think two things...either 1) they will never have children b/c they love their dogs too much to have to worry about the poor dog not getting enough attention or 2) when they DO have kids those dog stickers will be gone and they will be replaced with all kinds of mommy crap. I can just see those girls with some mega strollers out there walking and then going back to their suvs sporting "Baby on Board" signs and those little stick people stickers haha.

I guess having a kid puts things into perspective. A dog is just a dog. A car is just a car. Things matter a lot less than they used to. TIME is more important than THINGS. And it's one of those things that you really just can't understand until you're a mom. I hope someday those girls get to understand it too :)

On Saturday Zach and I (well mostly Zach) carved our pumpkins! They turned out awesome! It was his first time ever doing it (they didn't do them at home growing up) and it's fun to see him get so excited at what will be a new family tradition. I'm excited for next year when Kye will be a little more involved!

workin' hard!

our pumpkins at night, the first one is mine and Kye's and the second is Zach's!

That night our church had their yearly Trunk or Treat get together and I was excited to take Kye. Since our real Halloween costumes were pretty pricey we didn't want to spend money on getting him one just for the Trunk or Treat but since his costume for Halloween doesn't work without all of us dressed up I was kinda stuck. Luckily, Courtney let me borrow Colt's costume from last year. Is it what I would pick? Heck no! And it was a little small (0-6 month sized haha) but whatever. It was free and it worked and he rocked it! Here's our little bear with his pumpkin!

with Daddy and his pumpkin

I love how he's looking up at me in this one :)

one more with Mommy! He looks like he's growling haha

The night was pretty fun. We got there earlier than most people and ended up leaving early so we could get home to feed him but we got a good idea what it's all about so we can really do it next year. They had a hay ride and Kye really enjoyed it! Here's his first time on a hay ride:

One of the kids from our church (Matthew Jones) was dressed up like a gorilla and Kye loved it (duh!)! Right after I took this he grabbed his face haha!!!

Monday, October 26, 2009

People are always asking me if Kye is crawling yet and when I say no they say "oh just wait!" What they don't get is that my child may not be crawling but my life is basically exactly the same as it will be when he does. Kye can get anywhere he wants to go! That child moves lightening fast and is very good at getting around! He cruises around corners, pulls things down, and pulls up on things too. I've had to baby proof his bedroom (which only consisted of wrapping up a cord to his little fan) and started to cover outlets!

He always scoots a little then looks back at us to make sure we're watching!

He still rolls over a lot too and does a combo of both to get where he wants to go

I've heard that babies will creep or scoot but I didn't realize it'd be this hardcore! It's pretty funny and basically he's crawling just without lifting his belly. He will get up on "all fours" and sway like he's going to crawl but he only gets one leg, one arm, or one of both before going back down on his belly and scooting. I keep thinking he'll crawl any day now but at the same time part of me thinks he may not crawl. I mean he doesn't really have any motivation to do it when he can already go anywhere he wants!

His favorite place to scoot to is his play mat!

I took two videos to show of his new "trick!" The first video is him scooting in the living room and the second is our new ritual. This video shows him scooting for his paci and I do that before each nap now. He's starting to figure out that getting the paci means he'll have to go to sleep so he's not wanting to do it as much but it's still fun to try! Tonight he actually grabbed the paci and just held it while he kept on going towards his toys haha!

Babywise II says that once your baby is 6 months old they can go down to two naps a day instead of three. The first nap you drop is the one in the evening. Kye goes to sleep at 9 (up at 11), 1 (up at 3) and 5 (up at 7 to bed at 8) for naps. The 5:00 one is annoying because it limits what we can do at night so we were pretty pumped about dropping it!

All throughout his 7th month (he was 6 months old) he just still seemed to need it. His naps were kinda more random though and sometimes he'd sleep for only 30 min at the 5:00 one and sometimes he'd sleep the full 2 hours and needed to be woken up. It wasn't reliable and that made it even more annoying. It also made his other naps different too and I got to the point that I was over it!

The Babywise Blog I follow talks about dropping naps and says that when other naps are affected it may be time to drop the nap. She has a baby right now a little younger than Kye and her baby sometimes takes the third nap and sometimes skips it depending on what they are doing. Well we don't go out a whole heck of a lot and I feel like the more things are consistent for him the better. I didn't want to have him skip it only when we were out and about because if he was used to having it everyday I felt like he'd be more fussy, especially for night church on Sundays and Wednesdays!

The Saturday before we left for NYC Zach and I decided it was time. The Babywise Blog says you can ween a baby from the nap or just drop it all together. We opted to just drop it. We stayed really busy that day and took him out with us to dinner at Red Lobster (all you can eat shrimp baby!) which kept him busy and he did very well. That was almost three weeks ago and he is STILL struggling with this nap being gone. I feel bad for the poor kid and am kinda tempted to start it up again but I hate moving backwards with stuff! We've come this far why not just keep on going???

I say he's struggling but by that I just mean he's tired. He gets a little fussy around 5ish when he used to go down and as long as we keep him busy he does fine. With him being so much more mobile it wears him out as well and he's super tired at bedtime. We've had to move it up from 8:00 to 7:30 and that seems to be helping. Honestly, I think I should start nursing him around 6:30 and try to have him down around 7:15 but that's just tough to do!

Since the 5:00 nap is now gone I have started to let him sleep longer for his 1:00 nap if he wants. Instead of waking him up exactly at 3:00 I'll let him sleep until he wakes up. Sometimes it's 2:30, sometimes it's 3:30. I figure if he's hungry he'll wake up and I just feed him then. He's never slept longer than 3:40 but I feel like allowing him more sleep during this nap helps him make it without that third one.

What? I vary from the schedule? Omg! Babywise is a strict schedule but it gets less and less strict as the baby becomes older. With feeding times it talks about by the time he's 1 that he'll eat when we eat. Eventually that 1:00 nap will be his only nap of the day and then of course we'll want him to sleep as long as he can! His schedule hasn't changed one bit, it's just more flexible and that's one of the wonderful things about my little baby growing up :)

On Sunday things got a bit shuffled. Aflac had a Political Action Committee breakfast where former president Bill Clinton was supposed to speak but he had to reschedule so we still went to the breakfast but it was over much quicker than we'd planned! This is the day that the rain finally caught up with us and it was not too fun. My anti-umbrella husband actually broke down and used one on our long, wet walk to the Empire State Building.

I had purchased our tickets for the Empire State Building online in advance because I had read that there are often 3 hour long lines! We dealt with that when we went to the Eiffel Tower and didn't want to waste our day so we did the advance ticket thing. I totally wish I hadn't done that! First off, if we hadn't already bought tickets we wouldn't have gone during the bad weather. Secondly, there were NO LINES. Since it was raining we walked right in! And thirdly, they give student discounts (even after you graduate, still carry your student id...it works wonders!) so I could have gotten the tickets cheaper too! Oh well live and learn. We basically ran out on the platform, snapped some pictures and ran back in! haha!

The best part of it was the gift shop! I know that's random but they had awesome deals!!! We got Kye a 55 piece plastic tool set for $2.99! And our Christmas ornament souvenir (a cute Santa as the Statue of Liberty) for only $4.99! Awesome!!! We also saw some people from Valdosta...we heard their accents first then Zach recognized them as some ladies he had sold insurance to and we actually ended up being on the same flight with them back home too. Small world! We didn't buy these...but it was tempting ;)

There was an Express store across the street so we hit that up which was fun as it's Zach's favorite store. He got a really cool purple sweater for only $10 (those things are usually $80!) and I found some things I like that I may or may not see on my upcoming birthday :) We opted to ride the subway back to the hotel to avoid the rain and I pumped before walking to lunch! We had eaten at Carmine's our first time in the city while on our honeymoon and LOVED it! This time we split (it's family style) the manicotti and it was wonderful. We were sitting around a lot of families and it made me miss my baby but I knew I only had one more day till I would see him again :)

Zach's lips were so chapped so he broke down and used my lip smackers hahah

After lunch we were full and warm and really didn't feel like venturing back out especially to deal with the Subway system. When we went last time it was so easy and quick but we were there on a weekday and a local told us and the weekend is always screwy! Several trains weren't running or had changed to different letters. So annoying!!! We went pretty far so the subway was our only option but we wanted to check out the American Museum of Natural History. A little known fact is that if a museum has a "suggested admission" then that means you can actually pay any amount you want. This place had a suggested admission of $18 each but we payed them $5 for both of us haha! They have to accept it because technically they are a non-profit organization!

We didn't have very long to look at the place (only about an hour! because the line was long to get in and we had to get back to get ready for Pres. Clinton!) so we went to see the dinosaurs first and then basically ran through the rest of it. Everyone knows we're Christians so we believe that GOD made us and that we aren't who we are as a result of evolution. So basically this was a cool place to look but all the reading was pointless because it's all based on evolution ideas. We do want to go back to have more time to look and really want to take Kye as I know he'd love to see the dinosaurs!

On the way back we attempted to ride the subway again but it was so screwed up we ended up getting off somewhere semi-close to the hotel and walking the rest of the way. I was so tired I could barely do it but we made it! I had to get this picture because it's totally something you'd think you'd find in the subway :)

Before the farewell dinner President Clinton spoke. Zach and I are Republicans (really Zach is, I am not a very political person but I don't like Obama so I guess I'm Republican haha) so Zach wasn't very excited to hear Clinton but I was! I always heard how charismatic he is so I thought, if nothing else, he'd be a fun person to hear. I mean he's also a former president so that's pretty cool! Sadly though he totally disappointed! He looked SO OLD and acted like it too. He rambled on and on and on for an hour and never did make the three points he kept saying he was going to make. He did tell some great stories about some of his trips to third world countries and he is very smart. He spouted off all kinds of stats which was impressive! Overall though it sucked, especially compared to Huckabee!

After dinner Foreigner played for us. It seems like every time a band plays at an Aflac event it's not one from our generation. I can't even tell you one song they sing! We stayed for a little bit just to be able to say we saw them then we headed to the room to pack everything up!

At all the meals on these trips Aflac gives away the centerpiece. Last year we got every single one which was pretty awesome! This year we weren't as lucky. When we sat down at the farewell dinner we really wanted to win that centerpiece as it was a legit guitar!!! Sadly we didn't win it but we did have several freebies to fit in our luggage on the way home.

The flight home on Monday was MUCH better than the one on the way there (thankfully!). I was super eager to get home to see Kye. Like I told Zach, it's a strange emotion being away from him. I miss him a lot but I didn't wish I was at home and I didn't wish he was with us. I was especially eager to get back to nursing him. I didn't take as good of care of myself as I should have and I spread out my pumping sessions too far. I ended up getting a clogged milk duct which can lead to mastitis (and I don't want that again!). We worked hard on Sunday to get rid of it by pumping frequently and using a HOT wash cloth on it and thankfully it was gone by the time I got home!

Mrs. Charlotte brought Kye to the house and was on the front porch holding him when we drove up. I jumped out of the car and raced up to see him. It was precious he didn't laugh or anything he was very serious and just SO loving. He did our little head thing from Cancun like a thousand times, even to Zach! He was so cuddly and sweet and I was just so happy to hold him in my arms again. I'm so so so glad we took him to Cancun because after 5 days of being without him while in NYC I know I couldn't have done both trips and if they do trips that close together again and we can't manage a way to take Kye then I probably will just have to pick one. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful time with my husband and such a fun trip but we are a family and I think we should be together as much as we can be! I was happy to be home and even happier that Kye had held off on the crawling :)

Sunday, October 25, 2009

On Saturday we didn't have as hardcore of a schedule because it's was the Aflac "free day" meaning there wasn't a guest speaker or a breakfast or dinner. (They did give us some spending money though!) We would have slept in but since I had to pump we had to get up anyways and after pumping you don't really feel like sleeping so we went and got Bagels! Can't go to NYC without doing that! I got my "usual" bacon, egg, cheese, and peanut butter. Didn't compare to Bagel World in Melbourne but it was still good!

That day was the included Aflac Optional Activity where they pay for one thing you chose from a list of available activities. We decided to do the TV/Movie Tour of NYC. Since we'd been before we didn't really want a normal tour as we've seen the major sites plus we wanted a pretty short one. I'm so glad we picked the tour we did! It was super fun and we learned so many fun facts about New York and all the movies and tv shows that have been filmed there! Here's some of the major ones :)

"No Soup For You" from Sinfield...this is the actual restaurant where the show idea came from. The "Soup Nazi" actually sewed (and won!) for the show giving him that label!

Lois Lane's apartment in Superman

Parsons, where Project Runway is filmed (except this season it's in LA)

famous archway like the one in Paris!

Will Smith's apartment in I Am Legend

Restaurant where Meg Ryan "faked it" in When Harry Met Sally

Firehouse from Ghostbusters (and Hitch)

The house on The Cosby Show

The apartment building on Friends! I was most pumped for this one :) I never realized that the show was actually filmed in LA and that they just shot scenery in NYC for it. Also the apartment doesn't really make sense if you watch the show b/c they don't have a balcony!!! Still really neat to see in person :)

Monica and Rachel's Apartment

Bonus! While on our tour she told us that tons of tv shows and movies are filmed all the time in NYC and you can tell because they are required to tape up neon signs saying what they are filming. We just so happened to pass by a movie set! They are filming a new Michael Douglas movie called Wall Street II (I think) maybe this was his trailer! She said this one was one of the actors trailers :)

Another bonus...some awesome transvestites working the streets!

On the way back to our hotel some of the people told us they were actually filming Sex and The City II right outside our hotel!!! We totally missed it! Some of the people with us said they saw the cast, including Miley Cyrus! So cool! Now Zach and I both want to see the movie to see that scene as I think it's the only one Miley will be in! Here's where they were filming:

After the tour we headed to Central Park to check out the carousel. We didn't want to spend a fortune on the trip and I had fun hunting for free or very cheap things to do! It was only $2 per person to ride and it was so fun and such a classic thing to do! Here's a video Zach took while riding haha

No Hands!

Together :)

Afterward we checked out the Checker House in Central Park and it was actually free to play! We played a game but it didn't last long since Zach was killing me and I got that itch to keep going so we could fit everything in our day :)

Once we figured out how to get out of Central Park (it's HUGE) we headed to 5th Avenue to shop at FAO Schwarz. I'd gone there back the first time I went to NYC when I was like 12 but I didn't really remember it and now that we have a child toy stores are much more exciting!

The famous "toy solders"

The coolest thing was that they have a puppet station where you can design your own puppet by the same people that make the Muppets! We LOVED the idea and totally were sold on it and ready to make one for Kye...the only problem...it was $125!!!! Yikes! That would be over half his Christmas on one thing, just not worth it. Maybe someday we'll be able to afford to do it because we both love the idea (we did find a much cheaper, $22, puppet to buy him though).

Our hotel was right down the street from MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). We didn't actually go in but who can resist this picture?

After a pump session we headed back to Times Square to check out ESPN Zone. Yes, I know they have one in Atlanta but we never go to Atlanta and I wanted Zach to get to do something very manly! We didn't eat there but they have a game room and if you join their club online you get 45 free game points apiece! Score! We had fun playing games together and Zach had a GREAT time playing this football game!

It was this game where you have a certain amount of time to score as many points as you can and you throw footballs through holes in cardboard players that are moving the whole time. It was really hard! Some drunk guy from New Jersey asked Zach to play against him and Zach killed him! Notice the score (Zach was player 2 obviously).

I was thinking Zach was pretty good until this short oriental guy stepped up to play by himself. He got into the machine and collected all the balls and set them all up. We thought he worked there! He started going and it was AMAZING. I actually had him play again so I could get a video of it. This isn't a video of the whole thing because I thought he was done when it was just loading up the bonus round but isn't that crazy? He said he comes there a couple times a week and he's been playing it since 2002. He throws a ball every 2 seconds! He said the average players scores around 30, that only like 1 out of every 25 score over 100 (good for Zach!) and that he has the highest score ever. I guess everyone has to have a hobby! Here's his final score of the round I taped:

After all the fun games we walked to Grand Central Station. On the way we did a little shopping at H&M and I got the sweetest compliment from the guy who checked us out! He said he loved my coat and that it was "so Prada" I told him is was Coach and he was all impressed and then I told him H&M seemed a little too young for me since I'm a mom and he about died!!! He couldn't believe I was a mom or that I have such a young baby! He said I looked awesome :) It made me feel so good coming from a stranger haha! Anyways we went to Grand Central because it's one of those things that you just have to check out! It was free and we made dinner reservations there at Michael Jordan Steakhouse.

The whole place was beautiful. I printed off info online so we could learn about it while we were there. It was so neat!!!! From the information booth famous clock where all the people meet in the movies, to the ceiling covered in zodiac symbols, to the real gold chandeliers from 1913, the place didn't disappoint! The neatest thing was the Whispering Gallery where you can face the corner and whisper and then the person can hear you through the other corner. It took us awhile to figure out that it was the corners diagonal from each other and that you have to FACE the corner to talk AND to hear it haha. You should have seen us trying and the several people that stopped to tell us what to do! It makes for funny pictures, but it really does work and it super neat :)

The Steakhouse is located in the main concourse with a beautiful view of the awesome ceiling and pretty chandeliers. All that and the food was amazing too! In order to save some money we split a steak (at $40 a piece can you blame us?!?) and got a side (a $10 side...welcome to New York huh?!) to split too. The waiters were super nice about it and didn't act all snotty or anything. And the food was incredible. I was very very impressed as was Zach. They actually have an $88 steak there that is 44 oz!!! Would have been so awesome but we were okay with what we got, maybe someday :)

One of the things we planned to do while in NYC in October was to ice skate at Rockefeller Center. I just really thought it'd be fun and romantic as did Zach! We wanted to do it at night and we passed it on our way back to the hotel but decided not to do it. I needed to pump and it was FREEZING and we were both so tired and wore out from all our walking (we didn't ride the subway at all the whole day!) that we just thought we'd do it the next day. Of course it ended up raining on Sunday so we didn't end up getting to do it at all and we both kinda regret not doing it when we had the chance. It would have cost us almost $50 more and we didn't need to spend the money AND Aflac typically goes there every 5 years so we can just do it next time. And it'll be extra fun then because we'll be looking forward to it for so long

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